Hi,
I have a chance to pick up a used unit for about $80.00 here in Florida froma guy that claims it was given to him as a gift & he does not need it. Anything I should look over before making the final purchase & is this unit one of the better ones that Panasonic put out???

I used an E85 for two and a half years before buying the more recent EH75V. It's still in my closet for use in case something happens to the EH75V. It's a good solid unit, and I'd consider it a bargain at $80 if it works OK.

If you're going to use it for OTA recordings, you need to be aware that it does not have an ATSC (digital) tuner, so beginning next February you'd have to use it with a converter box. The built-in TV Guide On Screen system gets its data piggybacked onto an NTSC (analog) channel, and I don't know whether the E85 can be made to work with the ATSC version of TVGOS via a converter box. You can still fall back on setting the clock and scheduling recordings manually like on a VCR. I used it that way for a year and a half, recording from a HD receiver via the line inputs.

If you're on cable, you'll still have some analog signals for a while, and you can always record via the line inputs, but there's still the matter of losing TVGOS.

It was a very popular model, although a few failed more rapidly than their owners expected. If your seller will let you check it before buying, make sure it will record and play on both its hard drive and DVD drive (bring a DVD-R blank with you). If both drives seem to work, $80 is a pretty good price.

Bear in mind most recorders dating from 2004 have difficulty using current blank discs available at retail. Dye formulas have changed radically. You may need to buy TY 8x DVD-R blanks online: all the discs in stores are 16x and not so good.

If you buy this machine the first thing I would do would be to take the cover off the unit and then off the DVD burner. Unless it has been recently cleaned I guarantee it will be dusty/dirty and will give you grief later on(cleaning CD's do not clean the spindle). I haven't seen a Panny more than a year old that didn't have a dirty spindle. It's a big problem with older Pannys, luckily cleaning it is quite easy and quick to do.
As others have mentioned media will be a slight problem with a unit of this age. You probably don't want to get the cheapest 16x discs from a discount store and expect them to work good. Also as noted +R discs of any type will not work, although that's not that big of a deal. Personally I'd miss not being able to record to cheaper -RW discs although RAM are superior their just more expensive, harder to find in B&M stores and less compatible with other players.
Overall if the unit worked good(most important would be the HDD, the burner can be easily cleaned if grinding) I wouldn't hesitate getting it. Without the HDD personally I wouldn't pay over $30? for one of a similar age.